Eighteen-year-old Aiden Otterman will vote in a general election for the first time in November. His choice for the Orange-Caledonia House seat won’t be hard. That’s because Otterman himself is a candidate in a three-way race to represent the small, rural towns of Topsham, Groton and Newbury. Should he win, he’d be the youngest Vermonter elected to the state legislature in modern history — and possibly ever.
Aiden, a Democrat, is not the only Otterman vying for the role. His great-uncle, 69-year-old Tom Otterman, is running as a Republican. Both are competing against Newbury Selectboard chair Susan Culp, 54, an independent. The contest will fill a seat held by Joseph Parsons, who isn’t seeking reelection. Parsons was first elected in 2020 as a Republican but now calls himself an independent.
Tom Otterman, who declined an interview with Seven Days, is a civil engineer who has worked for decades as a surveyor and septic designer. According to his campaign website, he’s against school consolidation, thinks state regulatory agencies need to speed up permitting, and believes in climate and energy legislation that “is equitable and advances affordability.” In June, he told the conservative website Vermont Daily Chronicle that he decided to get into the race after no other Republicans stepped up.
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In 2024, Tom penned an updated version of a century-old poem about Vermont that was published by the Vermont Daily Chronicle. In it, he lamented the loss of “freedoms and traditions” and “the stealing of our culture, by those who profess the woke.”
The elder Otterman has received the endorsement of Republican Gov. Phil Scott, who called him “a strong voice for his neighbors and for rural Vermont.”
Culp, who moved to Vermont in 2019 from Arizona, is a former lobbyist in the areas of land use and conservation. She was also an outspoken opponent of the Department for Children and Families’ effort to locate a juvenile detention center in the small town, arguing that its infrastructure and services were inadequate to support the facility. The state now plans to build it in South Burlington.
Culp said her “extensive policy background” and “experience with the legislative process” are solid grounding to be a good representative. She said she’s never had a strong political affiliation and decided to run because she thinks “rural Vermont would benefit from having more independent-minded voices in the legislature, bridging the divide between the two partisan sides of the coin.”
While she sees Aiden as a “very likable person,” Culp said, she believes that experience matters when it comes to serving as a lawmaker.
“Being energetic and being glib is not going to help you that much when you go sit down in that chamber and get down to the serious business of policy making,” Culp said.
Newbury residents Tony and Joanne O’Meara agree. They worked with Culp to oppose the juvenile facility and on other town issues and believe she’s the best choice for their district.
Joanne said she’s been “blown away” by Culp’s ability to make lengthy, bureaucratic documents understandable and called her “pragmatic, detail-oriented and unemotional” in dealing with complex issues.
“The way things are right now, I really don’t think we just need another ‘D’ or ‘R’ to act with their respective caucus and party dogma,” Tony said. “Unquestioning allegiance has clearly damaged the state and the country.”
Aiden, though, argues that, as a young person raised in rural Vermont, his perspective would be an asset in the legislature. The average age of Vermont’s lawmakers last year was 58, according to Rutgers University’s Center for Youth Political Participation.
A self-described progressive Democrat, Aiden focuses his campaign message squarely on the state’s high cost of living, which he thinks is the key barrier to keeping young people in Vermont. He believes in strengthening workers’ rights and supporting small businesses so that money stays in Vermont instead of going to big, out-of-state corporations. He’s received endorsements from the Vermont-National Education Association and Vermont Conservation Voters.
A senior at Thetford Academy with enough credits to graduate in December, Aiden has served since 2024 on the Vermont State Youth Council, a group of 28 teens who advise the governor and General Assembly on policies that impact young people. He was chair of the group until last winter, when he resigned from the leadership position to run for office.
Should one of the Ottermans win, they won’t be the first in their family to serve in the state legislature. Harvey “Bud” Otterman — Aiden’s great-grandfather and Tom’s father — was a Republican state rep for four terms, from 2000 to 2008. Aiden was just a few months old when Bud, a well-respected lawyer who served as president of the New England Bar Association, was ousted by Democrat Chip Conquest. He was 3 years old when Bud died at age 85 while clearing brush in a field.
Aiden has only one vivid memory of his great-grandfather. He was a toddler and running through a living room of the family farm when the elder Otterman told him to slow down, he recalled.
That rambunctiousness was a hallmark of Aiden’s early years.
“Up until middle school, I was pretty misbehaved,” he said. “I was throwing fits over little things, not really listening. You probably wouldn’t think that I would be doing what I’m doing today if you saw how I acted.”
He credits working in the sugar bush on the Otterman family farm in Topsham alongside his grandfather Steve — Tom’s brother — as a turning point. Aiden said the work taught him how to be a good steward of the land, as his ancestors had been for generations. He built culverts and a bridge that’s now referred to as Aiden’s Bridge. He learned to operate a tractor, excavator and dump truck.
The experience, he said, gave him the confidence to pursue leadership positions in middle and high school: as a member of the student council, leader of the social justice club, editor of the newspaper and star of a school play. He ultimately found his way to the youth council, where he helped write the group’s bylaws and craft recommendations for the governor, including extending voting rights to 16- and 17-year-olds in local elections such as Town Meeting Day. In August, Aiden, then 17, voted for himself in the state primary. (In Vermont, those who will be 18 before the general election are allowed to vote in the primary.)
Aliyah Ivey-Leake, a junior at Bennington’s Mount Anthony Union High School who chairs the youth council, described Aiden as “outspoken and not afraid to say what is on his mind” and a passionate advocate for including young people’s voices in state decision-making.
Since he was 15, Aiden has also been a cashier at a Hannaford supermarket in Bradford. Working alongside adults, some of whom struggle to make ends meet even though they have full-time jobs, shaped his pro-worker ideas, he said, including his belief that the state needs to raise its minimum wage, which is now $14.42 an hour. As a child of divorced parents, Aiden said he’s also faced housing and food insecurity at times.
“I decided to become a Democrat because I align with their values: justice, fighting for the working people,” he said. “I oftentimes see very pro-big business policies coming from the other side of the aisle and just not a lot of caring stuff.”
It’s very surprising, going door-to-door or talking with family members … how much we agree on.
aiden otterman
The seat that the candidates are vying for is one that has, in the past, toggled between Democrats and Republicans. Topsham, Aiden’s hometown, and Groton went for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, while Newbury favored Democrat Kamala Harris by a narrow margin. Though most of Aiden’s family members are Republicans or apolitical, he said, he’s been able to convince at least some of them to vote for him.
His approach — both with them and potential constituents — is consistent: communicating clearly about helping working people and trying “not to have some kind of moral high ground,” Aiden said.
“It’s very surprising, going door-to-door or talking with family members … how much we agree on,” he said.
Catherine Kidder of West Newbury met Aiden when he and several friends came to a meeting of the Corinth-Topsham chapter of Indivisible, a national network that organizes peaceful protests against the Trump administration.
Kidder said she’s friends with Culp and sees her as an effective selectboard chair. She considers Tom Otterman “a nice guy.” Still, she’s decided to throw her support behind Aiden.
“He’s great with people. He will walk across the room to shake your hand. He’s respectful, and he has it all,” Kidder said. “He’s the real deal.” ➆
The original print version of this article was headlined “A Race for the Ages | Aiden Otterman, 18, is running against his great-uncle and a selectboard chair to become Vermont’s youngest legislator”
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This article appears in 2026 General Election Voters’ Guide.
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